Miami Is No. 2 in BCS

Order was restored Monday in the third rendering of the bowl championship series standings, meaning Miami fans can put away those chill pills.

Nebraska and Miami, the only two unbeaten Division I schools in the national title race--sorry Brigham Young--are No. 1 and No. 2 in this week’s BCS.

Nebraska held its No. 1 BCS position while Miami, No. 3 last week despite being No. 1 in the writers’ and coaches’ polls, jumped once-beaten Oklahoma to claim the coveted second spot. The top two teams in the BCS at season’s end will play for the national title in the Jan. 3 Rose Bowl.

Nebraska has a comfortable lead at the top spot with 2.62 points, followed by Miami at 6.61, Oklahoma at 7.83, Tennessee at 12.74 and Texas 13.93. Miami fans had groused that their team was No. 3, even as BCS number-crunchers assured them everything would work out so long as the Hurricanes kept winning.

Miami only had to make up 0.11 BCS points to pass Oklahoma and the Hurricanes did so by lowering their computer average from 3.67 to 2.83 and trimming their schedule-strength ranking from 3.04 to 2.88.

Miami and Oklahoma pounded weak opponents over the weekend, yet Oklahoma was hurt more by its 58-0 win over Tulsa than Miami was for its 38-0 win over Temple. Despite the lopsided win, Oklahoma lost ground in the schedule-strength component.

Tennessee used its win over Notre Dame to jump three spots, from No. 7 to No. 4. Oregon leads the second BCS five at No. 6, moving up four spots, followed by Florida, Washington, Washington State and Michigan.

Stanford dropped from No. 6 to No. 11 while UCLA, No. 3 in the first BCS standings and No. 9 last week, dropped out of the top 15 after its loss at Washington State.